Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Vengeful - Die Rache ist mein by V.E. Schwab

15 reviews

bashsbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

If you have seen and enjoyed NBC's Hannibal, Vengeful is for you! 

I knew that Schwab was a fan (as they posted something about rewatching Hannibal as she's writing the third Villains book), but the influence was much more direct in this one than Vicious - especially in the Eli and Stell storyline, which has a lot in common with Will and Hannibal's stints in high-security prisons, helping to catch other killers. And of course, the climatic scene harkens to the defeat of the Red Dragon.

Do not think that this book is just Hannibal with a superhero veneer, though. There are a lot of subplots woven together, and most of them are unique. For example, I love June and her entire character. I love poor Sydney's struggles. I'm intrigued by the shady-orgness of EON. I'm curious as to how the next book will go, given how we left off with plot twists at the end of this one - and I hope Schwab doesn't take too much longer to give it to us!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual violence, and Vomit

madmadmaddymad's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A thrilling read. It reads like a YA, but has the content of something a little more adult. I enjoyed rooting for the villains in this one. Marcella and her gold nail polish, mob wife with a real lust for power, was the star of this book. 

Victor was also fun to follow. I couldn’t help but root for them to team up into a league of super villains!

Eli didn’t annoy me in this book as much as he did in the last one… but I’m still pretty unsure if I like him or not. He’s not even fun to hate. I wish there were more to his character. I just find him kind of “meh.” Which is a bad thing for a villain to be. 

And Sydney is of course so endearing. I love her and her attachment to Dol. when I read a chapter from Sydney’s point of view I can’t help but feel that this would make an excellent movie. Kind of a young adult dystopian action adventure movie like the early 2010’s. She’s such a star. Can’t help but root for her, and wonder where she’ll take me next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death and Torture

Minor: Rape and Toxic friendship

rhyslightning's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

If you’ve already read Addie LaRue, then I can say this one ends leaving a similar taste in your mouth. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

gardens_and_dragons's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Again, I am a sucker for a good friends to enemies story with villains. You completely understand and sympathize with these characters, even though you don’t condone their actions well, this was not necessarily some thing that was needed for any sort of closure from the last book, I think that it was a welcome romp.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Animal death and Toxic friendship

alexandrabelze's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

i have so many issues with this book idek where to start. i actually enjoyed the first one and got so excited for this one (especially after reading marcella’s intro chapters), but this was just disappointing. victoria tried to fit WAY too many storylines and new characters into this book. and it doesn’t help her case that her storytelling was, at times, extremely messy. on top of that, the structure of these books did not help that issue at all. i also could not vibe with june’s character. which is disappointing bc her power is cool. anyways i’m about to go off in the spoiler <3

first of all, i expected that when sydney found out that victor was the one who killed serena it would be more dramatic? maybe a little tense? but instead i was let down and we moved on almost immediately. like hello??? next, and i hate to say this, i think dol should have stayed dead this time. i’m glad victoria kept him for a majority of the story, but it would’ve felt more complete to add him to the final deaths. and it would’ve built up sydney’s character. speaking of building her character, WHY did we go through ALL of that with the dead birds just for sydney to decide in ONE PARAGRAPH that she did not want to revive serena?? i honestly would’ve preferred she tried it and failed. finally, eli’s death was boring. i was expecting an insane emotional battle between him and victor that ended in something so dramatic and lowkey sensual, but instead he just…died. like that was next level disappointing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death and Stalking

lauraeerika's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

there was no reason for this book to be so fucking long & messy at the same time!? 
where was the editor?
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everything else in this book chef’s kiss, i just couldn’t care less about the constant pov change’s, im still thinking why did stell have a pov?
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the thing is i love v.e.schwab’s writing but to me there was so much going on that everything that we were supposed care about kind of were swept under the rug of the action and by the end of it, i was just so confused 
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don’t know if i’ll read the third book (i kind of consider vicious now a standalone in my mind)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

lukas_ty's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

kt2e56's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Vengeful is to Vicious what Part II was to the first Godfather. Just so phenomenal from start to finish. It brought back characters we were already glued to in the first book but also gave us some brand new ones that actually wind up stealing the show a bit, including Marcella Morgan who is a “Good for Her” baddie for the ages. This was a satisfying conclusion to Victor and Eli’s story but honestly, Schwab is so talented that I’d absolutely read more about this world and these characters if she were to bring them out again to play some more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

lakebreeze's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

sunrae_booknook's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I loved this book so much. I usually am not a fan of book two but this was better than the first. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship